Ben 10 and the Darkstalkers Part 1: New Ghoul in Town
by Shoejuggler
Summary: After a heist gone horribly wrong, Psyphon accidentally unleashes a dangerous creature from another dimension upon Bellwood. Can Ben and Rook track it down before it can claim another victim? And what, or who is it after? Reviews and constructive criticisms are greatly appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

_**8:00 P.M.; Plumber Base, Armory**_

The device in Psyphon's hands let out a screech as a white pulsating ball of energy sprung out of its barrel. The orb flew into the center of the armory before flattening itself in midair, as if it had collided with some kind of invisible wall. The flattened energy ball continued to expand in the middle of space, getting taller and wider until it had reached about ten feet in diameter. A faint image of some sort of landscape began to fade into view somewhere inside the white, quite like thick fog being blown away to reveal a hidden mountain. In a few seconds, the portal would become a gateway to the Null Void.

The wait time aside, Psyphon was quite pleased to call this test run of his own custom portable Null Void Projector a success. It brought a smile made of sharp yellowed teeth stretch across his pale white face. Behind him, Bubblehead- an alien that resembled a cross between a lizard and a centipede inside of a exosuit topped with a large glass dome-, Liam - A tall chicken-like alien-, and Fistina - A red, robust, and robotic woman, stopped raiding the Plumber's armory to watch the tear in time and space as it slowly developed into a fully functional interdimensional gateway.

"Well whaddya know?" Bubblehead's voice echoed from underneath his helmet. "It worked."

"Of course it worked, you dullard." Psyphon snapped, turning around to properly insult the thug. "I used to build Null Void generators for Vilgax the conquer. I know that dimension like the back of my hand."

"If you're such an expert, you'd know that using the Null Void as an escape is…"

Insane, and stupid were two words that came to Bubblehead's mind. The Null Void was a nightmare dimension that the galaxy used as a prison for its most dangerous criminals. It was infested not only with the meanest, bloodthirstiest criminals in the universe, but also a multitude of terrifying monsters that happened to stumble, thrive, and breed inside the Void. Having been a prisoner in the Void a couple times before, Bubblehead wasn't very enthusiastic about returning. Besides, there had been an incident involving a chain of Vulpimancer pit fights, hundreds of unlucky bets, and a very irate Splixon gangster he wasn't very keen on revisiting in there.

"Dangerous" was the word he ended up using to finish his sentence. He decided it was the word least likely to harm his cut of the loot if the heist actually succeeded.

"If you bothered to listen to the plan Bubblebrain, you'd know that we aren't going to be in the Null Void long enough for anything to happen. Just until we open another gateway to the hideout. Then we sell every piece of Plumber tech here on the black market, and retire on a resort planet in the Andromeda Galaxy."

"But what if...you know, something bad does happen?" Liam asked. "Like if there's some giant monster waiting for us on the other end or something."

"Gee, hadn't thought about that one." Psyphon responded in a tone dripping with sarcasm. "Maybe if we had an entire arsenal of weapons we could use to defend ourselves, we could manage."

"Oh...yeah," Liam looked at the hovercarts that he had filled with Plumber munitions not so long ago. "I wasn't thinking-"

"You never do." Psyphon interrupted. "Now if that's all of the questions from the peanut gallery today, I would like to get this heist overwith before the Plumbers come snooping around."

"Is the portal supposed to look like that?" Fistina asked

Psyphon was a little bit surprised at the question. He had always thought, of all of his cronies, Fistina was the smartest. Not as smart as him obviously, but smart enough to not ask such a dumb question.

"Of course it looks like that! What else is a portal to another dimension supposed to-"

As he spoke, Psyphon turned his head to look at his Null Void portal, and saw what Fistina was talking about. Since the last time he took a look at it, the dimensional gateway had gone from controlled to unstable. It was no longer shaped like a perfect circle, but fluctuating between a multitude of obscure oblong shapes, random bursts of energy would appear along its borders in the form of furious electric bolts, and it was emitting a very unnerving warbling buzz, that sounded like a swarm of insects.

But the most troubling new development with the portal was that the destination it showed through its morphing surface didn't look anything like the Null Void. Instead of the familiar vision of giant rocks floating through space, the portal displayed a dimension unlike anything Psyphon or his underlings had ever seen before. A world where the land and sky were colored blood red, the seas were aflame in the east, and frozen solid in the south.

It wasn't supposed to look like that…

"It's...It's fine," Psyphon lied. "Just a very minor glitch with the portal's stability. We'll have to get in with the loot before it collapses. Come on."

Psyphon placed the Null Void Projector ontop of one of the hovercarts, grabbed its handle, and started to pull it into the portal. He only got a few feet towards it before he realized that he was the only one doing so.

"What's the matter with you dolts?" Psyphon growled. "I said we're leaving! The plumbers could be here to arrest us any second now!"

"Sounds better than going through that thing." Said Bubblehead. "We'd probably get disintegrated before we reached the other side...not that the other side looks any more inviting."

"I told you, it's safe!" Psyphon repeated, his tone getting more and more aggressive as his patience with his counterparts began to waiver. "I've spent far too long preparing for this heist for you cowards to back out right when we're so close to success. Get in there, NOW!"

Raising his voice didn't work. The trio of thugs stood their ground, all of them looking anxiously at the portal, slowly edging away from it.

Psyphon shook his head in disgust of his crew's spinelessness. Vilgax never had to deal with this kind of insubordination. Whenever he issued a command to his subjects, they would gladly sacrifice their own lies if it meant finishing the task sooner. How would Vilgax handle this, Psyphon pondered. Or rather, how would he handle this if he were a couple feet shorter, looked far less threatening, and didn't possess the strength to shatter mountains? Fear was what was holding them back, so what could he do to circumvent that?

Bravery? That could work.

"I'll prove it then!" Psyphon declared. "I'll show you it's safe."

With that, Psyphon spun around on his heel, and started towards the fluctuating portal, all while praying desperately that he could get the others to move before the Plumbers - or worse, Ben Tennyson - barged in to ruin everything.

The portal began to act more erratically and more threatening at Psyphon's approach. It began to shift forms faster so that it resembled a quivering pail of water seen from above, the portal's surface was furiously bubbling with small explosions, and the electronic buzzing noise began to sound even more frenzied, like a nest of angry wasps ready to sting.

Getting even closer to the rift, the buzzing noise began to fade into another noise, like a radio slowly getting a signal through static. He could make out a voice chanting in a harsh guttural alien language he wasn't at all familiar with.

Now only arm's length from the portal, Psyphon found himself feeling less confident about sticking his hand inside it. He tried hard to ignore its chaotic behavior - especially the chanting, which was slowly becoming clearer, and louder than the buzzing - and strained to keep his mind on the fat stacks of credits he'd be rolling in after this was all over. He told himself that the sweat pouring from his brow was from the heat coming from the sea of fire inside of the rift, and the chills he felt creeping through his veins were from its icy counterpart. He didn't know how to explain away the fact that his heart was trying to smash through his ribcage, so he tried to ignore its frenetic beating.

With great effort, Psyphon managed to unfreeze his left arm, and slowly move it towards the portal. The chanting got louder and louder the closer his hand got to it, to the point that it sounded like it was coming from inside his own ears. Then suddenly, the chanting was interrupted by a scream that managed to briefly drown out its droning. Psyphon quickly recognized the scream as his own as he drew his hand away from the portal just as a surge of energy lashed out at it like a caged beast.

Psyphon turned back to his hovercart, shaken, but still determined to go through with his plot. As he turned away from the portal, he noticed that the chanting came to abrupt halt as soon as it left the corner of his eye. Strange, but not strange enough to stop him from trying to breach the portal again.

When he reached the cart, he dug his hand through its collection of assorted firearms until he pulled out a Plumber's sniper rifle.

"Just a slight precaution." He told the others. They responded by rolling their eyes. Psyphon ignored them, and walked back to the portal. As he did, the chanting restarted just as suddenly as it had ceased.

Psyphon stopped in front of the portal, this time, far enough so that the barrel of the sniper rifle could enter the portal. If he could stick the barrel into the portal without any ill effects, it would be safe to enter. If it came away from it melted down to the chamber...well, for now, it was better to think positively.

Psyphon kept a somewhat firm, but awkward grip on the rifle's rubber grip as he moved the gun into the portal, so as to avoid any accidental electrocutions. The chanting got louder as the barrel got closer to the portal, just as before. The explosions littering the portal's surface became more frequent in the spot where the barrel was only inches away. Summoning the limited courage he had to spare, Psyphon took a deep breath, and plunged the barrel deep into the portal.

And then, everything stopped. The portal stopped quivering, sparking, exploding, and chanting, and returned to behaving like a good fissure in the fabric of time and space. It still had the image of the strange dimension showing inside of it, but otherwise, it looked much safer to cross through. As Psyphon slowly started to pull the barrel out of the portal, he was elated to see that it came out unharmed, and in the exact color of silver it had when it had entered.

"See?" Psyphon gloated to the others as he continued to pull out the barrel. "I told you it was saAAAAUGGH-"

The fear that Psyphon struggled to keep under control was now flowing throughout his body as something from inside of the portal grabbed the barrel of the sniper rifle, and yanked with horrifying power. As he was pulled closer and closer into the rift, panic took control of his body, and squeezed the trigger of the sniper rifle. Totally unprepared for the gun's tremendous recoil, Psyphon was sent flying backwards until he collided with his hovercart, spilling guns and ammunitions onto the floor.

Psyphon didn't have much time to assess the situation before something that looked like a long, thin, black tendril shot out from behind the veil of the portal, and into the armory. The tendril wiped around the room until it wrapped itself around the arm of Bubblehead's exosuit. The alien cried out in horror as he tried to tear the extradimensional digit off of himself, but despite his artificially enhanced strength, he was utterly helpless as the tendril coiled around his suit's midsection, and quickly pulled him back into the portal, screaming and flailing.

"Oh, no you don't." Liam said. Showing an impressive display of pediatric dexterity, the chicken-man kicked a plasma bazooka lying in the pile of scattered weapons into the air, and into his feathery arms.

Psyphon's crimson eyes practically bulged out of their sockets in alarm when he saw Liam aim the cannon at the portal. "What do you think you're doing, you moron?!" He bellowed as he leaped off the floor to stop him. "The plasma charge will overload the-"

It was over before Psyphon could even finish his warning. Liam's cannon shot a bright green ball of plasma energy into the portal. The reaction was instantaneous as the portal absorbed the plasma, and its surface resumed riddling itself with explosions. As the explosions grew in size and intensity, Psyphon desperately raced back to his overturned hovercart, and scrambled to hide himself underneath it. Fistina and Liam were just about to dive behind an overturned weapons bench for cover, when the portal went critical, and a powerful fiery blast ripped through the armory. While Psyphon's fairly large makeshift bunker protected him from the explosion, and dampened its thundering roar down to a barely tolerable level, it did very little to prevent him from being thrown back and forth against its superheated walls.

When the shaking stopped, the noise quieted down, the hovercart's walls cooled off, and his world stopped spinning around, Psyphon decided to take a peek out from under his hiding place. He couldn't tell if the explosion had blew out all of the lights, or if it had chared everything pitch black. Either way, Psyphon could only see darkness, to the point that he almost couldn't tell if his own eyes were open or not.

But Psyphon didn't need to see to know that his grand heist was well beyond salvaging. The portal was gone, all of the weapons were most likely either heavily damaged, or otherwise rendered unfit to sell, his men were gone, and if the Plumbers hadn't already known that something was going on in the armory, the explosive would've tipped them off.

As he began to withdraw back under the hovercart to hide from the Plumbers, Psyphon felt something cold poke into his side. He pulled a small flashlight from out of his pockets, and turned it on to reveal his mini Null Void projector, along with a small cache of weapons spared by the explosion. He figured that they must've ended up under the hovercart when he flipped it over. The weapons wouldn't fetch enough to afford the resort planet, but they would give him enough to buy almost anything else he wanted. And best of all, he didn't have to split it with anyone anymore.

Feeling much happier than he did a moment ago, and quite possibly his entire life, Psyphon stepped out from under the hovercart with the generator in hand. He was about to conjure another portal...when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him.

The footfalls were too light to belong to either Fistina or Bubblehead, and they lacked the clicking noise Liam made when his talons tapped the floor. In fact, it sounded like whomever was behind him was wearing high heels. Last time Psyphon checked, neither Ben Tennyson nor his fellow Plumbers were very keen on women's footwear, so who could be…

A frightening thought crossed though Psyphon's mind. A horrifying possibility that Psyphon almost completely refused to accept because he was too afraid to believe it. Pulling out the tiny flashlight in his pocket, Psyphon reluctantly turned around, and turned on the light.

Psyphon only caught a brief glimpse of the creature's huge bat-like wings, before he screamed, and dropped the flashlight. For the first time in his life, he was sorry that he was right. Right about being trapped in the armory with the thing from the portal.

"St-stay back!" Psyphon tried to aim his Null Void projector towards the sound of the creature's footsteps, but his body was shaking too much to keep his shot steady. "I swear, I'll blast you to-"

Psyphon yelped in pain as he felt the creature's tendril whip the projector out of his hands, and clattering on the floor somewhere in the darkness. Blind, and completely helpless against the horror slowly striding towards him, Psyphon frantically searched his mind for a way to survive the next five minutes as he backed away from the sound of footsteps. A task made quite difficult with his mind muddled up with fear, and his legs nearly tripping over things hidden in the dark.

"L-listen, how about a deal?" Psyphon bargained. "I've got a score worth billions of credits. You help me get out of here, and I'll split it with you, fifty-fifty."

There was no response, only footsteps coming closer.

"Okay… how about forty-sixty?"

Still no response.

"Seventy-thirty?"

Psyphon's heart sank even further than before as he felt his back hit a corner. The footsteps kept coming, and as far as Psyphon could "see", there was nowhere else to run.

"Eighty-t-twenty?"

The footsteps were only a few inches away from him before they stopped. He couldn't see it, but he could somehow sense the creature leaning forward to bring its face to his.

"Okay, you can have everything! Everything here! You don't even need to help me escape! J-just leave me alone!"

Psyphon could feel the creature's hot breath on his face now.

"Please! Take it all! Just leave me alone! LEAVE ME-"


	2. Chapter 2

_Five minutes later_

The armory's metal door let out a loud groan as it relented to the overwhelming magnetic force assaulting it. As it tore away from its hinges, an alien that resembled a yellow and black, anthropomorphic scrap metal sculpture invited itself to hover through the doorway.

"Alright Psyphon," The alien said in a metallic voice. "I've got better things to do tonight than kicking your butt back into a holding cell, so why don't you just give up before I have to-"

The alien silenced itself as its silver ball-shaped head looked around the room. I appeared that he didn't have to do anything to Psyphon; he and his gang apparently already did it for him. They even went so far as to add his usual brand of collateral damage. Weapons racks, benches, and foot lockers were haphazardly scattered across the room, while guns, knives, and all sorts of other damaged munitions were spilled all over the floor, and a huge dark scorch mark was burned into the center of the armory.

In the far back of the room, the metal alien could see that chicken guy that always hung out with Psyphon (He never bothered to learn his name) sprawled out on the floor; unconscious and almost completely featherless with a trail of his own plumage leading from the spot where he was knocked across the room. Laying close beside him were various robotic body parts belonging to Fistina. Whatever happened here had heavily damaged her, but it was nothing she couldn't recover from when she regained consciousness. He spied a shredded piece of Bubblehead's armor amongst the parts, but there was no sign of the rest of the alien anywhere else in the armory. Last and definitely least was Psyphon, who was curled up in a corner like a dried up bug.

"Aw come on guys, I was just kidding about giving up." The alien complained. "You didn't have to blow yourselves up for my sake. Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but still, it really takes the fun out of crimefighting."

Behind him, another alien entered the armory toting a gun composed of many segmented pieces. The alien, named Rook Blanco, was a vaguely cat-like humanoid with a face covered in black and blue fur matching the color of his Plumber armor. His visage also had two bright yellow eyes, red pupils, and flat slitted nostrils.

"I very much doubt Psyphon would surrender himself just because you said so." Rook said. "Why would he go through so much trouble to infiltrate the armory just to give up?"

A green badge with a symbol that resembled a green hourglass stuck on the metallic alien's chest began to flash and beep for a couple of seconds before enveloping him in a bright green flash of light. When the light faded, in the alien's place was a sixteen-year-old human boy with short brown hair, green eyes, and wearing a white hoodie with the number "10" surrounded by a green circle on its chest. The boy went by the name Ben Tennyson, but he also answered to hero, coolest guy in the universe, and a multitude of other aliases he took whenever the device on his arm, the Omnitrix, turned him into one of many different aliens stored inside of it.

He answered Rook's earlier question with a shrug. "Who cares anyway? Psyphon's isn't going anywhere. Case closed."

"Not by a longshot, Ben."

Magister Maxwell Tennyson, or Grandpa Max to Ben, made his way into the armory behind Rook. The aged Plumber wore his signature red hawaiian shirt adorned with big orange and yellow flower patterns. On his left shoulder sat two grey, diminutive, frog-like aliens. Blukic and Driba both served as contraries to the Galvan race's reputation as being the smartest in the galaxy. That wasn't to say that the two weren't somewhat intelligent, they just weren't very good at showing it sometimes.

"We still need to find out all we can about what happened here, and what Psyphon was after." Said Max.

"We're in an armory, Grandpa." Said Ben. "Obviously, he was after Plumber tech. How did he get in here anyway? I thought Plumber HQ had more security than Fort Knox."

"A number of our defenses have been offline since the Incursion invasion." Rook explained.

"I know that. I meant why haven't we got everything running again? The invasion was a week and a half ago."

"According to our technical division, there've been some...unforeseen delays in repairing the defense grid." Said Max.

Ben narrowed his eyes at the entirety of the tech division sitting on his grandpa's shoulder. "Delays?"

"There's a huge rat in the service ducts." Driba explained.

"It stole five of our tool kits." Blukic elaborated.

Ben shook his head. "So what else is there to look for Grandpa? Psyphon and his gang didn't get away with anything."

"There are still some questions that need to be answered, Ben." Max explained. "Even without our defenses, Psyphon's smart enough to know that someone would have seen him walking out with a couple dozen tons of heavy weaponry. I want to know how he intended to move it."

"Well it's not like he's going anywhere for awhile." Ben said as he strode towards Psyphon's corner. "Let's ask him."

Ben briefly toyed with the idea of turning into an alien to scare Psyphon conscious, but decided to just shake him awake, figuring that him seeing that he was under arrest would be frightening enough. But before he could even touch him, Psyphon's body rolled over on its own to expose his face, which had taken on a disturbing transformation of its own. His usually white complexion was now dark gray, his skin had become translucent, exposing the veins hidden underneath his flesh, and his red eyes were now milky pink as they sat halfway withdrawn into their sockets. Overall, it looked as if he had aged a couple hundred years before being partially mummified.

"Jeez!" Ben yelped as fell to the floor jumping away from Psyphon. "He looks like he saw his own mom! What happened to him?"

Blukic and Driba climbed off of Max's shoulder, and skurried over to Psyphon's body. Driba rubbed his chest with a stethoscope, while Blukic knocked on random parts of his anatomy to provoke a reflex of some sort. It was hard to tell if they knew what they were doing, or just mimicking stuff they saw their physicians do during their last check-up. After a few minutes, the two climbed off of the villain to give their diagnosis.

"Welp, he's dead." Blukic declared.

Driba's head snapped to his colleague's direction with a look of disbelief and annoyance. "Dead? He's alive, you moron."

"No, he ain't." Blukic argued. "I checked his pulse; Nuthin'."

"You checked his wrist, didn't you? With Psyphon's species, you're supposed to check the forehead for the pulse, you quack,"

"You're the quack. Everyone knows it's the ankles you're supposed to check."

"Forehead!"

"Ankles!"

"Hey, can we get back on topic here?" Ben said, defusing the argument. "Why does he look like that?"

"Perhaps his condition has something to do with this." Rook picked up something off of the floor that looked like a pistol with a weird blue ball attached to the muzzle and a bunch of seemingly random mods stuck all over it. "It is the only weapon that has been left somewhat unharmed. It might have caused whatever transpired here."

Rook handed the device to Grandpa Max to look at. The Magister looked at the casing, noting all of the strange attachments Psyphon has installed on the gun, then pried it open in order see its innerworkings.

"Interesting," He remarked. "It looks like Psyphon constructed some sort of miniaturized Null Void generator. He must have been planning to move the weapons between here and wherever his hideout is through a Null Void portal ."

"Well, obviously that didn't work out." Ben said, gesturing to the burn mark on the floor. "But that still doesn't explain why Psyphon looks like he took some extra hits from an ugly stick."

"A portal to the Null Void is a two-way passage, Ben. Something can get out through it just as easily as someone can get in. It's a rare occurrence, but an escape does happen every once in a blue moon." Max said as he placed the projector on a footlocker, and continued to take it apart. "I'm guessing that might have be the case here, and something might have come through the portal to attack Psyphon."

"What makes you say that?"

Without looking up from the foot locker. Max pointed up to the ceiling to direct everyone's attention to a hole broken into it. At first, it looked like the hole could've been caused by the explosion of Psyphon's portal, but under closer inspection, the hole led to another hole broken into another ceiling in a room above the armory, then another hole in the ceiling of another room above that one, than another, and another, until they ended in a hole that opened up to the night sky.

"Ask a dumb question." Ben muttered a few seconds before his eyes opened wide when he finally realised the connotations of the holes in the ceiling. "Wait! So the thing that attacked Psyphon is loose in Bellwood?"

"Unfortunately, it would appear so." Rook replied gravely. "And it falls to us to track it down."

"How?" Ben asked. "We can't exactly get Gwen down here from college to find the thing before Psyphon's new look starts trending."

"And the explosion probably fried the surveillance cameras we have set up in here, so we can't ID whatever came through." Max scratched his head. "That does make things a bit difficult."

"I think we might have a solution," Said Driba "If Rook will let us use his Omnitool for just a minute."

A look of unease came over Rook's face as he looked from his gun, to the two pseudo-geniuses staring at him from the floor, and back to his gun. After considering the potential casualties that could be avoided by this one sacrifice, Rook reluctantly placed his Omnitool on the ground so Blukic and Driba could access it. After working for two minutes, the duo stepped away from the weapon to allow Rook to retrieve it. He then immediately started to inspect it to make sure nothing was broken.

"We installed an application on your Omnitool that can track an energy signature that can be found in the Null Void." Driba explained.

"The thing from the portal should be lousy with the stuff, so you should have no problems finding it." Blukic added. "Probably,"

The many segments that made up Rook's Omnitool started to shift, twist, bend, stretch, and constrict as it transformed itself from a gun, to a tablet device with an antenna sticking from its top. On its screen, the Omnitool showed a purple trail leading from the center of the room, to the corner Psyphon was in, and through the hole in the ceiling.

"It works," Rook exclaimed in disbelief. "And it is showing that the suspect is moving towards downtown."

"Then what are we doing hanging around here?" Ben asked as he walked to the armory's doorway. "Let's get moving."

"Be careful out there Ben," Max warned. "You don't know what this thing from the Null Void is capable of. Don't fight it without coming up with a strategy first."

"I always have a strategy, Grandpa." Ben assured while he walked out the doorway. "It's called Deus Ex Machina; I always win. It's been working out for me so far."

"I will make sure that the situation is under control." Rook assured Max as he ran after his partner. "Also to look after Ben's posterior."

"You mean, 'Watch his back'." Max corrected. "And I'd appreciate it."

As Rook left, Max turned his attention back to the projector. According to his own knowledge of Null Void projectors, a device of this size should not have been able to work, even if it was only long enough to bring one thing through a portal. And according to his knowledge of criminal profiles, Psyphon was smart enough to know that, so he must have used some sort of power source powerful enough to briefly stabilize a portal long enough for someone to get through it. But what could he have-

As he detached a compartment attached to the projector's motherboard, Max got his answer.

"Well then, how did Psyphon get his hands on you?"


	3. Chapter 3

_**Somewhere in Downtown Bellwood, in an abandoned warehouse,**_

"You know, I used to think you looked cute when you got mad, but now I feel it's starting to become a problem."

Charmcaster's cold gaze met Darkstar's through the eye holes in his iron mask. Save for his head, Darkstar's entire body was engulfed in a massive fist belonging to one of Charmcaster's Golems. Below him, the rock monster's mistress was waving a staff that was topped with a goat's skull. The purple runes embedded in the Golem's rocks glowed brightly in response as the creature tightened its grip on Darkstar. The villain let out an anguished cry as he felt the tortuous pressure on his chest and back increasing as the creature's fist continued to constrict. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to breathe as his lungs were being compressed, and it felt like his ribs could shatter at any moment as the jagged stones that made up the creature's digits dug into his flesh.

Another wave from Charmcaster's staff eased the Golem's grip on Darkstar. Even though it hurt to breathe, Darkstar greedily gulped down precious air as soon as his lungs were allowed to fill to capacity again. As he did, he returned his focus to Charmcaster form. She was still wearing the purple-and-black short sleeved dress and "V" shaped headdress she wore when she and Darkstar first met. Additionally, she had long silver hair, enticing purple eyes, ebony lipstick, and exotic elfen ears.

After catching his breath, Darkstar found the strength to speak again. "See? You're always resorting to violence. That's the problem with this relationship. You need to start speaking your feelings instead of lashing out."

"Shut up!" Chamcaster snapped. "I didn't go through the trouble of finding you because I missed hearing you patronize me!"

"Good, you're speaking your feelings instead of acting them out. We're making progress. Now we just need to work on that shrewish temperament. Very unladylike…"

Charmcaster began to raise her staff again. "Answer my question, or you'll see just how shrewd I can be. Tell me what you did to Ledgerdomain."

Ledgerdomain was a dimension that fed life energy, or mana, to the entire universe, and served as Charmcaster's home. Darkstar once tried to seduce the sorceress, and trick her into giving him all the power in the realm, which could possibly explain why she considered him a prime suspect in its disappearance.

Other than concealing his unfortunately hideous visage, Darkstar's helmet had the added benefit of hiding the fact that he was trying to hold back a laughing fit. "You lost Ledgerdomain? You managed to lose an entire dimension while you were still in it?" He clucked his tongue. "What irresponsible behavior for someone who declared herself its ruler."

"You have no right to judge me, you parasite." Charmcaster growled. "Now tell me what you did!"

"Come on Charmcaster, you're a smart girl." Said Darkstar. "If I had taken Ledgerdomain, why did you find me trying to drain mana from alley cats instead of turning Bellwood into a crater? How could you have captured me so easily if I commanded all the mana in the universe?"

Charmcaster lowered her staff a bit as she considered Darkstar's defense. "How do I know you're not working with someone?" She challenged.

"You know what I think?" Darkstar asked. He didn't wait to hear Charmcaster's response before speaking his thoughts. "I think you know that I had nothing to do with whatever has happened to Ledgerdomain. In fact, I think you want me to help you find who's responsible, but you don't want to admit it. I think that this whole interrogation is an excuse for you to force me to help without having to ask."

"And why do you think would I go through all that trouble for something that stupid?" asked Charmcaster.

"That you're still madly in love with me, but you don't know it yet."

Charmcaster glared at Darkstar for a long time. Silently, she regretted she would have to end him in such an uneventful manner as crushing him in a Golem's fist. Especially after she had come up with so many more interesting ends for him ever since she cast him out of Ledgerdomain. Still, if she let his idiocy go unpunished, she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

"Snap him like a twig." Chamcaster commanded.

Darkstar shook his head in pity. "Some people just can't be honest with themselves." He sighed as the Golem started to tighten his grip again. "Well, I tried to be the bigger man…"

From within the Golem's grasp, Darkstar placed his left palm against the creature's, and concentrated. Through his hand, he could see, feel, and taste the mana that animated the creature. And with that first taste, Darkstar drew back his focus, taking the energy with him. Before the Golem realized what was happening, its hand began to crumble around Darkstar's body as the villain literally slipped through its fingers.

As he sucked up the last of the Golem's energy, Darkstar felt the familiar and most welcome sensation of his entire body beginning to itch. His skin twitched and crawled as his dried, and withered flesh became smooth, tan, and youthful. His mostly barren scalp tingled as his thin, grey, aged stands were replaced by a full head of beautiful sparkling golden hair. In place of his missing teeth was a great white charming smile. The pain in his lungs faded away, as did his bruised rib, as invigorating power coursed throughout his entire being. The more dashing and empowered Darkstar became, the more the Golem began to crumble away. The stone titan let out a hoarse death cry just before its massive stature fell away into a pile of dust.

After drinking the Golem's mana, a deep hunger began to awaken in Darkstar. One he had managed to partially suppress after going so long without drinking the brilliant, savory elixir that was mana. But now that it had had its first taste in what seemed like forever, it was roaring from within his body, demanding more, and more, and much, much, more. Darkstar's horrible cravings turned his attention to Charmcaster, who was no doubt filled with enough mana to silence his hunger...until he found lovely Gwen at least.

"...but now, I guess I'll settle for the role of the angry ex."

Even as Darkstar shot two powerful beams of dark energy at her from his palms, Charmcaster did not seem impressed by his display of force. The utterance of a short and simple levitation spell carried her out of the beam's range, while also giving her the perfect vantage point from which to launch a counterattack. Charmcaster's eyes became bright purple as she summoned terrible mana lightning from her fingertips. The crackling electric attack put Darkstar on the defensive as he held up his arms in order to produce an energy shield to protect himself.

As the lightning lashed at him with its electric tendrils, Darkstar tried reach out from behind the shield to draw mana from the attack. But unlike the lumbering Golem, the lighting was too quick to get a firm hold on. Each time he felt a bolt hit his shield, it'd disappear before he could focus in on it enough to absorb it.

As he continued to pour his stolen energy into the shield, Darkstar began to feel weak; weaker than he did before he got the Golem's mana. His blood ran cold as he felt his restored skin begin to prune again, and his helmet began to fill with clumps his own hair. Panicking about his body's untimely regression, he began to lose the focus necessary to keep his shield up, allowing a thunderbolt to slip through his defenses and strike his chest with a horrible shock. The lighting forced Darkstar off of his feet, and sent him sliding across the floor on his back. Before he could attempt to pick himself up, Charmcaster pointed her staff at the ground to sprout four, small, hand-shaped shrubs on either side of him. The shrubs each seized one of Darkstar's limbs, refusing to let go no matter how hard he tried to pull against them. Which, considering that he was completely drained of his strength, wasn't saying much.

"You know Darkstar, as much as I hate to admit it, you were half right." Charmcaster said as she descended back down to the warehouse's floor. "Part way through torturing you, I did start to think that you were innocent, and that your talents might have been put too much better use helping me find Ledgerdomain."

With another wave of her wand, and several seconds of unintelligible chanting, the floor of the warehouse began to quake. Several spots on the ground began to break free from their foundations, and shape themselves into giant, ape-like figures. Cracks began to open up into strange patterns all over the bodies of the rocks, becoming purple, glowing, magical, runes. Eyes, mouths, arms, fingers, and legs formed on the sculptures as they completed their transformation into three new Golems ready to carry out their mistress' commands.

"...But then you had to open your mouth, and remind me why I hate you so much. I hope that vindication comforts you while you're being torn limb from limb." Charmcaster turned to address her new servants. "First one to bring me his helmet gets rewarded. And make sure the head stays inside."

Darkstar tried to say something witty and seductive to woo Charmcaster into letting him live, but as soon as he opened his mouth, it was immediately filled with his own shed hair and loosened teeth. By the time he spat everything out of his mouth, the Golems were already barreling towards his prone body, pushing and shoving each other out of the way as they raced to get to him. One of the Golems managed to get a hand between both its brethren's heads in order to drive them into the ground, and secure its lead in the race. Darkstar's eyes were wide with terror as the victorious Golem approached him, and began to reach for his skull.

Inches away from touching his head, the Golem's fingers were just about to wrap around Darkstar's helmet, only to be interrupted by the sounds of something crashing through the warehouse's roof and a high-pitched whine. Curious, the Golem looked up at the ceiling, just in time to catch a giant, black, spinning drill with its face. The creature's screams were barely audible over the sound of the drill screeching and boring into its head, scattering stone shards everywhere. There was something, possibly someone, positioned on top of the drill, but it was impossible to make out just what it was while the rock monster thrashing and flailing about in agony. Going to pieces, both figuratively and literally, the Golem frantically clawed at the space above its shoulders to try and dislodge the drill. Its act of desperation was punished the second it touched the bit as its hands were instantly ground down to its elbows. The Golem didn't even have time to react to its loss before the drill finally managed to puncture through its head, and dig into its torso. With that, the creature's body finally stilled itself, and collapsed onto the floor. Like a twisted vision of a butterfly springing from its cocoon, the giant's body began to break apart as the thing that drilled it to death began to emerge from its craggy remains.

Even with his view obscured by all of the hair littering the inside of his mask, Darkstar was still able to behold the model of malevolent feminine beauty standing before him. The woman had a face that somehow managed to keep an uncanny balance between youthful and mature elegance with partially pale skin, blood red lips, and eyes that Darkstar thought he could feel searching his very soul. She wore a very revealing black corset with white feathers lining its shoulders and a heart cut out of its middle to expose her bellybutton, long pink fingerless gloves, purple leggings covered with little bat-shaped patterns, and black heeled boots that almost reached up to her knees. On her back, a pair dark and skinny appendages opened themselves into great big bat wings. A smaller vestigial pair of wings poked out from under her full head of long, glamorous, emerald hair. If the newcomer's tantalizing appearance, and ample curvaceousness didn't already have Darkstar wanting her, the frightening amount of mana her aura was putting out would have been more than enough to get his pulse pounding with vast desire.

But it seemed like Darkstar was the only one captivated by this dark enchantress. Angered by the demise of their brother, the two remaining Golems charged at the bat-woman with roars of barbarous fury. The first Golem that reached the woman leapt high into the air, attempting to flatten her delicate frame against its hard, petrous chest. Gravity didn't even have a chance to reclaim the Golem before the woman's wings transfigured themselves into a mass of pointed, snaking tentacles that each shot into the air, and impaled the creature, each making a loud crunching noise as they embedded themselves into its body. As women's wing-tendrils brought the struggling Golem down in front of her, her right hand began to glow with a yellow and dark purple brilliance.

"_**Soul Fist!**_"

A flaming human skull made of crackling mana shot out of the woman's fist, and into the Golem's chest. The force of the assault threw the Golem free of the tendrils, but left a few pieces of its anatomy still hanging from their barbs. Aided by the momentum from the attack, the screaming Golem was sent flying backwards until it collided with its counterpart, and the two monsters were shattered into pieces.

Despite having claimed an overwhelming victory against three mighty earth titans, the woman looked less than pleased with her win. In fact, she looked like she was rather bored by the whole ordeal. She let out a deep sigh of disappointment as she transformed her wriggling tentacles back into bat wings, dropping heavy pieces of Golem on the ground.

"I spend hours looking for power signature, and this is what I get for it?" The woman complained with a hint of a Scottish accent. "That fight didn't even last for a minute. Who was the sorry excuse of a conjurer that slapped together that ensemble of-?"

The woman stopped her gripping as she finally noticed Charmcaster, who was feeling a mixture of confusion and apprehension as she tried to figure out who and what she was, and Darkstar, who was struggling to lift up his head in order get a better view of her from his decumbent position. Her gaze went back and forth between the two, as if she was trying to make sense of what must have seemed like a bizarre scenario to someone who had no idea what was transpiring. Then again, the scene was still pretty bizarre even with context.

"Oh, I get it." The woman said as she looked over Charmcaster's choice of garb. "This is one of those weird rituals you human brats do when sacrifice stuff to summon demons like me, right? I suppose you want me to engulf the popular girls at school in the infernal flames of the underworld because they called you fat?"

"You're supposed to a real demo-" Charmcaster paused as the rest of the woman's comment registered in her head. "I'm not fat!"

"Of course, dear. Don't let those mean ol' girls get to you." The woman said halfheartedly. "And yes, I'm a demon; a succubus to be precise. Morrigan Aensland of the house of Aensland. Pleasure to meet you."

Morrigan walked over to Chamcaster while extending her arm to offer a handshake with a smile. The sorceress responded by scowling and shoving her staff uncomfortably close to the succubus' face.

"Charmcaster, remember that talk we had about that awful temper of yours." Darkstar called out from far behind the girls. "I know she's a demon and all, but you could try to be a little friendlier towards-"

Charmcaster momentarily took her staff out of Morrigan's face in order to summon another shrub to grab the top of Darkstar's helmet, and bring it down to the ground with a hollow metal clang. Vines sprung up from either side of his head, and wrapped themselves around it in order to still his tongue.

"Darkstar, if you took a moment to get over your stupid infatuation with this succubus, and used your brain, you'd realise that this is the first time a demon has ever walked this dimensional plane." Said Charmcaster. "Do you think that it's just a coincidence that something like this just happens to occur when Ledgerdomain goes missing?"

"Um, actually, I've been to the human world before." Morrigan corrected as she slowly pushed Charmcaster's staff out of her face with her finger. She didn't even react as the magical energy coursing through it zapped her pointer. "Quite a few times in fact."

"Unlikely," Charmcaster scoffed. "I make it my business to know if magical creatures wander into places they shouldn't be."

Morrigan rolled her eyes. "I'm starting to understand why the girls at school make fun of you. Seriously, this weird roleplaying thing you've got going on is getting rather pathetic. You should try changing your wardrobe, going out to parties, and meeting boys." She turned to look at Darkstar, who was still struggling against Charmcaster's vegetative minions in order to look at the succubus again. "And you should probably refrain from trying to sacrifice them. Men have so many more uses than that."

Morrigan's arrogance was really trying Chamcaster's patience. While she was able to sort of keep her cool while talking to Darkstar, this demon was managing to push all of her buttons. If the circumstances were different, she would have enjoyed trading insults with her, seeing whose wit was superior. But with the fate of her entire home dimension uncertain - possibly torn away from her by some mysterious force for some nefarious plot - she had no time for such idle gossip.

"Tell me what you know about what happened to Ledgerdomain, you vile creature." Charmcaster snarled as she stuck her staff back into Morrigan. "And if the next thing that comes out of your mouth has something to do with 'partying', I'll scour your lips off."

"Little girl, I'm trying to be as friendly as I can be." Morrigan warned as she pushed the staff out of her way again. "But if you keep sticking this thing in my face, I might have to hurt you."

"You think you can stand up to me?" Charmcaster laughed. "I control arcane powers that can bring entire worlds to their knees."

"The same power that made those three worthless Golems I tore apart?" Morrigan countered. "I'm pretty sure I have more magic inside one of my fingers than you do inside your entire body."

"I very much doubt th-"

*_**POP**_*

A miniscule burst of magical energy that Morrigan flicked from her thumb smacked Charmcaster right between her temples before she knew what was happening, knocking her to the floor, unconscious.

"I know the thumb isn't technically a finger, but the point still stands." Morrigan said before letting out another big sigh. "Geez, what happened to the human world? It didn't use to be this boring. Mortals used to know how to keep me entertained."

Looking even more disappointed than she did after her fight with the Golems, Morrigan prepared to take off into the night sky. As she did, the shrubs holding Darkstar to the ground were beginning to wither and die. With Charmcaster out of commision, her power over the vegetation faded enough so that he could break free of their grip. He tried to get up and run after Morrigan before she could leave, but he was still too weak to stand up on his own. As soon as Darkstar put weight on his legs, they fell out from beneath him and allowed him to crumple down to the floor helplessly.

"Wait," He tried to call out, but he too exhausted to bring his voice above a hoarse whisper. "Please...I need your help."

Fortunately for him, Morrigan was somehow able to hear Darkstar's cries of distress. She stopped flapping her wings, and made her way over to the pitiful excuse for a scoundrel. As she approached, Darkstar could smell her sweet intoxicating perfume.r.

"So...your name's Darkstar, right?" She asked as she helped the withered villain to his feet. "I hope you've learned a lesson about hanging around crazy girls like that. Believe me, there are better people you could associate with."

"You have no idea how right you are." Agreed Darkstar. "And you can call me Michael."

After Morrigan propped him up on his feet, Darkstar was able to balance on his legs for a good four seconds before he fell back down to the ground.

"I'm sorry, I don't have enough strength to stand up on my own." He apologized. "But, if you were to give me just a bit of your power, I think might be able to manage it."

Morrigan raised her eyebrow at Darkstar's inquiry. "That's a pretty bold request to make to a succubus you just met in an abandoned warehouse, don't you think? Besides, I'm not sure you could handle a bit of my power. It would probably end up destroying you,"

"You'd be surprised." Said Darkstar. "I once handled the power of a god after all. I'm sure I can take it."

"I guess that girl ended up infecting you with her crazy after all." Morrigan said with a light chuckle. "Still, who am I to deny the request of a fellow thrill seeker? Where would be the fun in that?"

Morrigan held out her hand to allow a haze of purple mana to gather in her palm. The haze shaped itself into a small shrieking bat that nestled itself in her hold. Despite the bat's size, Darkstar could sense a sizable amount of mana within its body.

"I'll make you a deal. I'm trying to find someone, but I'm having a bit of trouble locating them. I'll give you this little bit of my power if you'll help me find him."

"For you my dear, I'll hunt them down to the ends of the earth." Darkstar assured.

"Aw, what a gentleman." Morrigan puckered her luscious lips as she brought her palm to her mouth, and blew the energy-bat towards Darkstar. "Be sure to take it in slowly, or you'll end up melting your insides."

The bat squeaked adorably as it fluttered its way over to Darkstar. Paying no mind to Morrigan's advice, Darkstar seized the flying rodent's entire body in his grip, and proceeded to suck it dry. As soon as he devoured the energy, he felt his fist begin to burn as the power started to work its way under his skin. He screamed as a excruciating burning sensation tortured his hand from his fingertips, down to the base of his palm, traveled through his veins, and began to spread down his arm to the rest of his body. As it reached his midsection, Darkstar felt his heart ignite into flames as it beat faster and faster, a wave of excruciating nausea washed over him as a flow of lava began to slowly empty into his stomach, and a pile of heated coals begin to gather in his lungs. Water was beginning to drip from his eyes and his pores as the infernal energy marched up his spine, behind his eyeballs, and gather in his brain.

"Told you,"

While clenching his teeth and his fist, Darkstar tried to force himself to ignore the blazing agony ravaging his body. He was determined to consume the power, and not to let it consume him. Soon after he managed to stop himself from screaming through his closed teeth, Darkstar felt the burning pain start to slowly fade, and his power and beauty being restored tenfold. His helmet was filling up with a bright shining light as the demonic power beating inside of him turned his skin into a lustrous gold color. A rain of loose hair and teeth fell out of his helmet as he removed it in order to share his regained beauty with the world. After nearly being fried from the inside, the cool air flowing through the warehouse was a comforting feeling against his renewed skin.

Darkstar turned to his benefactor, briefly considered draining the rest of her energy, but then decided against it. If he barely survived only a fraction of Morrigan's power, he feared what might happen if she decided to unleash her full potential against him. Besides, he was sure a better opportunity to steal her mana would present itself eventually. Additionally, if he was to accompany her, he would have to try harder to resist her cursed charms; a trial which he found even more challenging than braving the flames within his body. Darkstar was fighting a constant battle keep himself from doing what Morrigan asked out of love rather than to further his newest plan. A plan that would allow him not only to take her remaining mana, but to also enact his long-awaited revenge against his old rivals.

With that in mind, Darkstar decided to turn on his own charm as he asked Morrigan: "Now, who is it that you seek, m'lady?"

"There's no need to get formal with me, Michael." Said Morrigan. "In fact, I would prefer that you would avoid addressing me like that. I get enough of that at home."

"Very well then." Darkstar agreed. "Who are you looking for?"

"Some guy named Ben Tennyson, or something like that. Have you heard of him?"

A wicked smile spread itself across Darkstars golden face. Things were falling into place almost too well. "Yes, we've...encountered one another on a few occasions. I think I can arrange a meeting between the two of you. But you're going to have to do exactly as I say…"


End file.
